Over the past two years, more businesses than ever before have started to use remote workers. The global pandemic forced many businesses to close their office space and adopt a work-at-home model. Studies show that nearly 30% of the American workforce will continue to work at home through 2022.
If you have a large portion of your employees working from home, you have to work on keeping them engaged and productive. Accomplishing this task can be difficult, especially if you are relatively new to the world of remote work. Here are some great tips for how to keep your remote employees engaged.
#1) Ask Your Remote Staff for Feedback
Employee engagement is crucial if you want to keep productivity levels high. If you are still trying to get your bearings regarding how to manage remote employees, there are sure to be mistakes along the way. One of the main things you need to focus on when trying to optimize the way you manage remote workers is to ask for their feedback.
Getting an outsider’s perspective on how well your remote work experiment is going can be invaluable. Reaching out to your remote workers and asking for their feedback on how things are going and what changes they would like to see in the future is a wise move. Not only does this make them feel like an important member of your team, it also keeps them engaged. Implementing the suggestions made by your remote workers can also make them more loyal, which will help you reduce turnover rates.
#2) Use Technology to Stay Connected
Communication is a make-or-break element in the success of your remote workforce. If employees are left to their own devices with little to no supervision, it is only a matter of time before problems start to occur. Since you can’t drop in to have a face-to-face chat with remote employees, you need to use the power of technology to communicate with them.
There are tons of project management tools like Slack and Asana designed to make managing remote workers easier. With these programs, you can delegate tasks, track a worker’s performance and chat with them. If you desire face-to-face communication, then using a video conferencing program like Zoom is vital.
Consistently checking in with remote employees is a great way to improve engagement. This regular communication is also a great way to discover problems before they cause lulls in productivity.
#3) Recognize The Contributions of Your Remote Team
The lack of recognition can create an unhealthy work environment. In a recent study, over 36% of American workers claimed the lack of recognition was the top reason why they left a past employer. If a remote worker doesn’t feel like the hard work they do is appreciated, they may start to search out new employment opportunities.
Instead of losing a valued member of your remote team, you need to realize just how important employee recognition is. Hosting weekly video conferences with your remote workers and recognizing some of their accomplishments is crucial when trying to keep these employees engaged. Offering rewards like gift certificates or paid time off for high-performing remote workers is also a great way to motivate other employees to be more productive.
#4) Focus on Wellness
People tend to work harder for businesses that go out of their way to show they care about their well-being. There is no better way to show remote employees you care about their physical and mental well-being than instituting an employee wellness program. Well-designed corporate wellness programs are proven to boost productivity, engagement, and efficiency levels.
If you want to get your remote employees on board with a wellness program, you need to think about doing things like:
- Develop a mental health tool kit
- Provide remote employees with counseling
- Offer annual well-being bonuses
- Help employees create a work/life balance
Asking your remote employees for feedback regarding elements they would like to see implemented in a wellness program is a smart move. By doing this, you can devise a wellness program that your remote workers will actually want to be a part of.
It's Time to Implement
Are you serious about boosting remote employee engagement
levels? Give the tips in this article a try. Comment below, we’d love to hear
how well they worked!
